10 Must Have Marketing Tools To Add In Small Business Growth Strategies!

Published on: 12 May 2022 Last Updated on: 18 February 2025

Marketing is an essential part of business growth because people will buy your service only when they know about your existence. And people will know about you only when you promote your business on various platforms where they are looking for your product or services. Therefore, marketing tools play an essential role in spreading brand awareness.

Digitization has provided an equal platform for every large and small business; all you need is the right knowledge and skills to use marketing tools to grow your business.

What are Marketing Tools?

Marketing tools are techniques, strategies, and materials used by marketing specialists of brands to create, enhance, and promote their products and services in order to expand their visibility. They are used for market research, generating leads, data analysis, content creation, SEO, and other categories of marketing.

To increase productivity and make marketing time cost-efficient, there are various marketing tools in the form of software that helps you with various activities related to marketing.

Here We Have Listed Ten Must-Have Marketing Tools:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools

HubSpot CRM
Zendesk

Social Media Tools

Buzzsumo
Buffer

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

SEMrush
Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension

Content Creation and Design Tools

Canva
Adobe Spark

Lead Generation Tools

Unbounce
Instapage

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools

These tools let you interact with your customers through data analysis of gathered information. They compile data from various communication channels such as the company’s websites, calls, emails, live chats, and other marketing materials posted on social media platforms. The data analysis helps a business know about customer behavior, their needs, and demands to provide them better services, which is an integral part of growing a business as they help to form business growth strategies to retain customers and drive sales.

1. HubSpot CRM: being free, every small business can have access to this incredible free tool. The tool saves a lot of time for the sales team as it gives you complete visibility of your entire sales pipeline on a clean and visual dashboard. It lets you connect to the prospects through free meeting scheduling, live chat, email templates, click-to-call functionality, and more.

2. Zendesk: it is an easy-to-love sales tool that will boost the productivity of your sales team, make data-driven decisions, and deliver enhanced customer experiences. Additionally, you can build and manage a pipeline that aligns with your business.

Social Media Tools:

social media helps to expand enormously, as most of the world’s population is an active member of at least one social media platform where you can connect to them on a personal level. Therefore, it is highly important to manage what you post and how your followers respond to your content. Social media tools help you schedule your posts and get the right analytics from the posts, even from the channels where it can be hard to get the information.

3. Buzzsumo: The tool explores premium content that can help you get more likes, links, and shares. It analyses a vast amount of data to enhance your social media marketing strategies. Moreover, it helps you find influencers who can be an asset to your campaign. Another most important feature of the tool is that it tracks comments and trends to make a real-time connection with your audience.

4. Buffer: it is one of the most affordable and intuitive tools to manage your social media activity. It analyzes the data, helps your plan and schedule your posts, filters out important comments, and responds quickly to them. Additionally, it lets you track down your activity and analyze your progress to make better strategies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

SEO is an integral part of digital marketing, as only an optimized website of content is visible on the search engines such as Google, which are the primary gateways for customers to enter a conversation with your brand. Therefore, you need SEO tools to manage and plan various SEO-related tasks such as keyword research, content optimization, or checking your current page ranking.

5. SEMrush: It is an award-winning tool used worldwide as a single platform to do SEO, content marketing, competitor research, PPC, and social media marketing. Specifically for SEO, it uncovers millions of local, and national keywords, analyzes any domain’s backlinking profile, tracks your SERP position on a daily basis, and runs technical SEO audits.

6. Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension: this add-on browser is easy to install and is compatible with both Chrome and Firefox. The extension shows monthly search volume, CPC, and competition data of keywords on multiple websites. Therefore, it will save you time that you can utilize to strengthen your business growth strategies.

Content Creation and Design Tools:

Content such as social images, logos, blog posts, or eBooks is the most influential way to attract people’s attention to your brand. And there are many tools to create them.

7. Canva: the tool lets you create professional designs with premium features such as brand kit and background remover. It lets you can plan, create, and edit the content on your own or with your team. Additionally, the Built-in comments feature helps you communicate, work, and resolve suggestions in real-time. Therefore, with Canva, you can create world-class designs and share them with the world in just a few clicks.

8. Adobe Spark: it is a collection of three web/mobile apps, namely Spark Page, Spark Post, and Spark Video, to allow the creation of social graphics, flyers, logos webpages, videos in various themes, and other types of content in no time. It has thousands of templates that any beginner can use to create effective content.

Lead Generation Tools:

To expand your business, you need to generate leads, and it is the most challenging part of marketing. Lead generation tools will help you make the lead generation process easy and simple as their automated features increase the process of conversion.

9. Unbounce: with this tool, you can launch overlays on top of any web page that has a call-to-action feature. You can customize the triggers and targeting rules to choose who sees the offers and when. This feature helps to make your brand reach the relevant audience whose chances of conversion are maximum. Additionally, you can personalize your overlays by making your copy adaptable to what your audience searches for.

10. Instapage: the tool lets you create and optimize relevantly, on-brand, mobile-responsive post-click landing pages and experiences without the help of a developer. It helps to increase visitor engagement and conversion with unique landing page experiences for every ad and targeted audience.

The main motive behind using these tools is to enhance the productivity of your sales department. You can make the best use of these marketing tools by hiring an expert who knows them in and out to save your time by focusing on your product and services and letting them do the rest of the job.

The best part about these marketing tools is that they are affordable, and some of them even offer free trials and templates. So, even if you are short on funds, you can still make use of these marketing tools to grow your small business.

Author Bio:

Joe Martin is a long-time contributor in the tech industry as a leader at Adobe, CMO of CloudApp, and SVP at Scorpion. With his business and marketing degress from Utah and Stanford and his work in tsech he brings a unique balance of strategy and execution to help businesses large and small grow.

Arnab

Arnab is a professional blogger, having an enormous interest in writing blogs and other jones of calligraphies. In terms of his professional commitments, He carries out sharing sentient blogs.

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The Importance Of Storytelling In Social Media Marketing

Stories are everywhere; look around you, and wherever you are, there is a story. They are no longer just in the movies and books; stories have gone beyond such confines. Think about a tale that captivated you last; maybe it was in a blog post and that grabbed your attention and made you emotional. Despite anything else going around you, it had your full attention. That tells you how powerful a tool it is and why it’s indispensable in your marketing strategies. The best platform to tell stories and win visitors is through social media marketing. Importance of Storytelling in Social Media Marketing: Continue reading and see how you can revolutionize your marketing approach. Showcase your Uniqueness Beyond the headshot and some catchy slogans, people want something that is interesting. Audiences do not want photos and videos that every other company uses to woo visitors. They want something that is captivating. For instance, on an ordinary day, you could take a few snapshots of your work area and probably share a few tips on what motivates you. Such mini stories will tell people how serious and how dedicated you are to productivity. Whatever industry you are in, you need to showcase what you have and how skilled and creative you are. Take Advantage of Visuals Videos and, generally, visuals are powerful tools that you can rely on for social media success and storytelling. Having such content makes your posts stand out while adding another layer to your narrative. According to research, visuals could increase visitors’ willingness to read by more than 80%. In fact, big brands believe that visuals are crucial to how the company’s brand story is relayed. Put Yourself in the Shoes of the Reader You have your post ready for posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media. Why don’t you spice it up with some story surrounding it? This will resonate with your followers, and many will find a reason to invest in your product. Look at the issues that your customers have and let your tailored PR team do mini stories that focus on their needs for you. Ensure that the stories are solution-based. Again, you need to look into how you can add some emotion and intrigue to the pedestrian posts. Most importantly, you must ensure that all your stories have the consumer at the center of it all. Get creative with the story, and this will improve the engagement. If, for instance, you are playing a pitch, the creativity in it will tell whether you are the best fit or not. Make it Personal Research shows that personal marketing is on the rise. This is because people are likely to trust another person more than they trust a faceless brand. People want to hear the story from family and friends rather than from a mere advertisement. A story ensures that you create a personal brand that resonates with your audience. A story is incredibly important in that it shows people the face behind the posts. In every one of your posts, ensure that you’ve some captivating story that will keep your social media audience glued and yearning for more. Get a good PR company or hire a leading social media agency to help you generate stories that will make a difference in your marketing. Social Media & Emotional Quotient – How To Increase Engagement Want to build a stronger connection with your audience on social media? It all starts with understanding the emotional quotient (EQ) and how to tap into it. People are emotional beings! So, you need to play into someone's EQ. So, when you can resonate with those emotions, your engagement skyrockets. Let’s dive into how you can use emotional intelligence to increase engagement on your social platforms. Start with Empathy The first step is simple: put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What are they feeling? What problems are they facing? When you show genuine care for their concerns, your audience feels heard. Create content that speaks to their struggles or desires, offering solutions or inspiration. Whether you're writing a caption or posting a video, make sure your message connects with them on a human level. It’s not just about selling; it’s about building relationships. Add a Personal Touch Secondly, don’t be afraid to get personal! Share your story, your challenges, or even a behind-the-scenes look at your business. People want to interact with real people, not faceless companies. When you show vulnerability or authenticity, your audience will relate to you on a deeper level. In fact, they’ll trust you more and are likely to engage with your content because they feel like they know you. Simple posts like, “Here’s how we overcame this challenge,” can go a long way. Use Emotion in Your Visuals Visuals are a powerful tool for stirring emotions. A single image or video can evoke joy, nostalgia, or even empathy. When you create social media content, think about what emotion you want your audience to feel. Is it exciting about a new product launch? Or comfort knowing that your service solves a major problem? You have to carefully choose visuals that align with these emotions. Research even shows that posts with emotional visuals get more likes, comments, and shares. Create Engaging Stories People love stories! Whether you’re posting on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, crafting a narrative keeps your audience hooked. A well-told story pulls at the heartstrings and helps your followers see themselves in the plot. Use storytelling to make your message more engaging! For example, if you’re selling a product, tell a success story of someone who used it and saw real results. Incorporating EQ into your social media strategy is truly a game-changer. When you understand and cater to your audience's emotions, you’ll see deeper connections and increased engagement. Read Also: 5 Types Of Digital Marketing How To Start Social Media Agency In India? What Is The Future Of Digital Marketing In Regards To Shaping Up Small And Large Businesses?

Content Marketing: Tips For Better Results

Content marketing has been around for quite a long time, and it is the go-to marketing strategy for many businesses nowadays. But everybody uses it, and the results they get are more or less along the same lines…in terms of the time they take to materialize. What if you’re looking to get better results from your content marketing endeavors? What if you want to do some smart work rather than hard work? In this post, let’s take a look at some answers to this question. What Is Content Marketing? Content marketing is basically defined as the type of marketing that involves creating and publishing/distributing content to a certain audience. The purpose of distributing this type of content is to increase awareness of the product/services so that they can be sold more. While “content,” in this context, refers to the content of all types, mostly written stuff is utilized for marketing purposes. This type of marketing takes different shapes and forms. Some people can engage in content marketing by writing and publishing blogs regularly. Others can utilize their product pages as a medium to engage in marketing, i.e., by making the descriptions and the visuals, etc., appealing and attractive. Actually, instead of mentioning them here somewhat haphazardly, let’s look at some of the content marketing methods in detail before moving on to the tips. What Are Some Common Methods Of Content Marketing? Here are a few of the common ways in which content marketing is employed. Blogs: Blogs, especially when created by a professional writing service, have a key role that goes beyond just advertising products or services. Their main goal is to educate and engage readers. This approach helps grow a brand's readership and audience. By providing valuable and informative content, the brand naturally attracts more people. This isn't just a marketing strategy; it's about genuinely helping readers. As more people find the blogs helpful, they start to trust and follow the brand, leading to increased business opportunities. With the help of a blog writing agency such as Compose.ly, brands can consistently deliver high-quality content that connects with their audience. Emails: Email marketing is technically a marketing strategy on its own, but since it almost always utilizes content of some sort, it can also be mentioned in content marketing. In an email marketing campaign, individuals are reached out separately by the brand. These emails can either inform the recipient about some sort of new product release, a sale or a special discount, etc. Newsletters: Newsletters are technically emails, but they are not like other messages that are typically used and sent in an email marketing campaign. While the latter, for the most part, directly promote the offerings of a brand, newsletters are geared toward educating the readers. You can think about them to be a type of hybrid between a blog and a typical email marketing message. E-books: While this one is a more elaborate step than what brands usually do, it is a good way to engage in content marketing. Now, with all that out of the way, let’s take a look at some tips that you can follow to get better results from your content marketing endeavors. Tips For Getting Better Results From Content Marketing As we mentioned earlier, while content of all types can be employed in content marketing, written content is the most common…and perhaps the toughest to create. That is why our tips will be geared towards it in particular. Don’t Write Like A Robot, And Don’t Write For Robots In that rather wordsmith-is line, we’ve summed up one of the most important principles of writing online content. Firstly, when you write content for marketing purposes, be it of whatever type and kind, you should make sure that your tone is friendly, communicative, and human-like. Mind you, there are exceptional cases where a totally opposite tone would be more suitable, but we are talking about the common cases here. This is what we mean by not writing like a robot. Here is what you can do to make your writing tone fall into this criterion. Of course, depending on the situation at hand, some of these tips may not be very applicable. Try and refer to the reader as “you” and yourself as “I” or “we.” This is one of the basic and simplest ways to make your tone look more natural and human-like. Since you have to make your written content look more like a conversation than a piece of written text, you should reduce your overall use of passive voice. People hardly use passive voice when they speak. I mean, I could have just said, “The passive voice is hardly used by people when they speak,” but I did just make my point. Keep sentences short. Keeping your sentences short can also give a natural touch to your writing and make it more reader-friendly. The second part of our tip was Don’t write for robots. We should actually clear this up a little before moving on. Nowadays, a lot of content marketing is done via search engines. When people write blogs, they channel them to their readers via search engines. The same goes for a lot of other types of content, like product descriptions and e-books, etc. Now, in a bid to make their content look nice to the search engines, a lot of people can end up making it look too mechanical, erratic, and awkward for human taste. Consider the following example: We offer the best ramen in Tokyo. Our quality ramen store in Tokyo is very good. Buy quality ramen near me in Tokyo. (Note the atrocious keyword usage) Good content? For the search engine, maybe. For the reader? It’s just gibberish. You have to avoid doing this sort of stuff when writing content for your audience. You should strike a balance between making the content appealing for SEs as well as your human readers. Do Proper Research…And Use It When it comes to content marketing materials such as blogs and newsletters, your aim should be to provide reliable and educative content to your audience. This can only be done if you do proper research and then utilize it when writing the content itself. In this part, let’s look at how you can do research properly and what benefits you can get from it. Here are some things that you can do for effective research: Look for popular and reliable sources on the internet. Before you start gleaning information from anywhere, you should establish its reliability first. Once done, be sure to find out relevant facts and figures to add to your content. This tip is, of course, subjective. In some types of content, adding facts and figures may not be very suitable. However, it can be a good idea in things like blog posts, emails, and the like. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to use some material from a source verbatim in its actual form. (More important than implementing theoretical and conceptual information is the utilization of the data you get from audience research. In other words, you should conduct audience research and then use the details that you find to adjust your content as per the needs of the audience. When we say “audience research,” we basically refer to using analytical tools to find out necessary information and details about your audience, such as the details about their age, gender, location, and so on.) Now let’s look at what benefits you can get by doing and incorporating research into your work. Authority: When your content is backed with research, it comes off as authoritative. For example, when you present a stat for a certain situation or occurrence, it looks more grounded as compared to an opinionated guess. Up-to-date information: Conducting research can also get you in touch with up-to-date information. By not researching your material before writing it, you can get stuck with old, outdated information that can neither help you nor your readers. Value: When your content is based on research, it provides value to your readers. For problems, it can provide solutions. For choices, it can provide expert opinions. This sort of content is a lot more potent in building a better readership and for growing your brand. Aim For Content Perfection Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi It’s a bit of a dramatic way to start off this heading, but it does make the point that we want. No content is perfect because perfection (least of all in written content) is not achievable. But if you aim for the bullseye, you can land somewhere close to it. That is why you should make all the effort possible to remove all types of imperfections from your content. Grammar errors: Grammar errors are by far the most common and most harmful errors that you can make in your content. You should be proactive about avoiding such errors during the writing phase. And once you do write the content, you should take steps like proofreading the content and using an online grammar checker to weed out the remaining ones. Clunky readability issues: Readability issues, such as confusing words, long-winded sentences, and weird phrase choices, can also adversely affect the quality of content. you can remove these types of imperfections from your content by using an online AI-driven paraphrasing tool. A good AI paraphraser can improve the readability of the provided content during the rephrasing process. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is like the diamondback of content imperfections. You can’t spot it quickly enough, and it can kill the quality of your write-up without you realizing it. Removing this imperfection is necessary and tricky at the same time. The best way to go about it is to use an online plagiarism checker and then analyze the results to take the steps you need. Conclusion A lot of brands do content marketing nowadays. But, to bring yourself a cut above the others, you have to follow some best practices. We’ve outlined a few of those in the post above. Read Also : How To Monitor The SEO Health Of Your Website Best SEO Tools For Ranking The Website Get A Return On Investment With Your SEO

Top 10 B2B Marketplaces to Grow Business!

B2B marketplace has become the best platform for wholesalers, retailers, or buyers to trade. It has helped so many sellers to reach their expansion selling goals. To sell your product or services through these platforms, you will have to create an ID on a particular website. The platform will work as a broker or commission agent. The best thing is that you can sell your product or services worldwide. Here we have listed the top 10 platforms, which will help you to grow your business. Here are the top 10 B2B marketplaces to grow business: 1. alibaba.com: Alibaba.com stands at the top of this list because it is considered the best leading b2b platform. Jack Ma and Pang Li, these two Chinese people founded this marketplace 18 years ago and since then offers a broad range of B2B services all over the world. It is also considered the best platform for related services, including B2C and C2C. 2. eWorld Trade: Eworld trade is also one of the best leading trade platforms for today's generation. It is because it has made the process more reliable, worthy, and secure. The well-established trade platform also offers a broad range of eCommerce services. 3. TradeLeaves: TradeLeaves makes Cross Border and Domestic Trade simple through its online platforms comprising of Marketplace, Business Listing, Information Services (BLISS), and Classifieds. TradeLeaves user-friendly digital platforms make increased visibility and exponential growth a few clicks away. TradeLeaves supplements the online platforms with its own professional services and escrow services as well as third-party services. Simply put, TradeLeaves makes it easy to buy and sell anywhere in the world—cross border or domestic. 4. EC21: The Korean counterpart also offers a broad range of marketing services all over the world. The head offices of EC21 are located in China, Russia, Malaysia, and India. Over 2 million people are engaging in services, including overseas marketing, trading educational seminars, and national cooperation. 5. TradeIndia: TradeIndia is an India-based marketplace platform that stands next to IndiaMart. It has participated in national and international trade events and offers a vast range of services, including DialB2b, Call Me Free, trade alerts, credit reports, and lead reports. 6. IndiaMart: One of the most India-based leading marketplaces is Indiamart, which is continuously growing since its foundation. There are more than 1.7 million visitors recorded on this platform and taking services like B2B and B2C. 7. En. Ofweek: The China-based marketplace is still growing but also has gained so much popularity in the electrical components trade all over the world. The fresh B2B marketplace contender is known as an in-depth reporting marketplace for its sellers. If you want to expand your business in China, you first know everything about the Chinese market. Click here to access china insight. 8. Global Sources: One of the most leading marketplace platforms of some prime countries offers a broad range of import/export services. In the countries where it is working, it has claimed millions of visitors a month and also offers a unique role in the GDP growth of those countries. 9. DHGate: Other China-based service providers have more than 40 million products listed on their trading platform. There are more than 1 million Chinese suppliers are trading with over 10 million buyers of 230 countries. DHGate is considered the most reliable platform that offers valuable benefits to both the buyer and the seller. 10. Amazon: Amazon was introduced as an e-store for purchasing several goods for personal or commercial use. The company noticed that people are showing a lot of interest in their service then they decide to start the B2B process, and now it is one of the best growing and leading trading platforms of India. Conclusion: Here is the list of the top 10 B2B marketplaces that are working all over the world. These platforms are considered the most trustworthy service provider. One can choose any of the above-listed platforms to start a new journey of earning more and more profit through the online selling method. Read Also: Why Should You Hire a B2B Digital Marketing Consultant? How a B2B Payment Solution Can Aid Your Ecommerce Company? The Right B2B E-Commerce Platforms to Sell Your Used Machinery

10 Must Have Marketing Tools To Add In Small Business Growth Strategies!

What are Marketing Tools?

Here We Have Listed Ten Must-Have Marketing Tools: